Karapiro Meaning

Karapiro (Māori: Karāpiro) is a settlement and rural area in the Waipa District and Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It includes both the artificially created Lake Karapiro and the accompanying Karapiro Power Station. Karapiro is located just off State Highway 1, south-west of Cambridge.

Karapiro History

In about 1600, Te Ihingarangi built a pā (fortified village) called Te Tiki o Ihingarangi near where Lake Karapiro is today.^[3]

In 1830 Ngāti Hauā defeated Ngāti Maru in a battle at Taumatawīwī, two kilometres south of Karapiro Domain. On the orders of the Ngāti Hauā chief Te Waharoa, his dead warriors were cremated, this taking place on rocks beside the Waikato River, the location then becoming known as Karāpiro, from the Māori language words karā, meaning "basaltic stone", and piro, meaning "foul smelling". The site was flooded when the dam was built and the lake created in 1947.^[4]

^{Read more at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karapiro}